Saving homes

Relief appears to be on the way for poor South Africans who lose their homes because they cannot afford to pay petty debts with the proposed speeding up of the passing of the Magistrates Court Amendment Bill which deals with the "disposal of immovable property of poor people whose homes are sold well below their market value in execution in respect of insignificant debts".

The chairperson of the National Assembly's justice committee, Fatima Chohan-Kota, said that it was necessary to balance the interests of creditors - "you don't want to actually say that people mustn't pay their debts" - with those of really poor people. The case of Jaftha and others v Van Rooyen and others was quoted as a recent example of poor people losing the roof over their heads for very small debts.

Article on Iol